In a survey of more than 500 parents by financial resource site MoneyTips released exclusively to MarketWatch, parents say it's the girls that cost you more. They estimate it costs, on average, an additional $2,160 a year to raise a daughter versus a
For example, parents spend more on Christmas presents for boys and overall parental consumer spending is greater for boys than girls (Harris, 2005; Sayid, 2016).
By any measure, raising kids is expensive! As of 2022, the average cost is around $288,094 total, or $16,005 per year. Of course, there's no one-size-fits-all. Costs will vary with each household, and the per-child cost may be lower for you if you have multiple children.
Dr Chilton adds that baby boys need more emotional support from their mother, and for a longer period than baby girls. “Male babies on average have greater difficulty self-regulating their emotional state and therefore have a greater reliance on emotional support, especially from their mother1,” he says.
Parents may be more likely to coo at, talk to, and read bedtime stories to a daughter than a son, which may also explain why girls develop verbal skills earlier than boys.In contrast, some parents are quick to rush in and help their daughter when she is struggling to complete a task.
When we look at the statistics the chances of having a boy or a girl are almost the same and there's no medical evidence to suggest we can influence this. You may, however, have heard about the 'Shettles Method'.
Gender inequality starts even before birth. Across the world, would-be parents tend to prefer their first (or their only) child to be a boy rather than a girl or to have more sons than daughters (1–8). This results in millions of “missing girls” at birth due to sex-selective abortions (9–11).
More From Good Housekeeping. When all is said and done, MoneyTips estimates that parents spend $80 per month more on girls than they do on boys. This comes out $960 more per year, or $17,280 more over the course of the 18 years that children are likely living at home.
The age where a man is most fertile is between 22 and 25 years. It is suggested to have children before the age of 35. After this age, the male fertility begins to worsen. After 35, the sperm might result in pregnancies where mutations can occur.
Every stage of parenting has its challenges, but one poll reveals what age most parents feel they struggled with the most.
Housing is the biggest expense associated with raising kids, followed by paying for food. Following those two categories of expenses, parents spend the most on childcare, transportation, healthcare, clothing, and miscellaneous spending.
The Choosi Cost of Kids Report 2023 revealed the estimated annual average spend on child(ren) is $12,823 per household. Aussies spend an average of $12,823 on their kids per year. Couples planning to have children aim to save more than $31,000 to ensure they have enough funds for all the initial expenses.
While estimates vary wildly, the Choosi Cost of Kids Report 2023 shows the average annual cost of raising a single child is $12,823 per household.
Moms who have girls are much happier than those with boys, particularly when the children reach early adulthood, according to a study from the Journal of Family Issues. However, a survey done by Gallup says: 54% of Americans say boys are easier to raise than girls. 27% say girls are easier to raise than boys.
Boys are deemed easier to take care because they seem to require less attention. This may not be true for all boys because of course there are boys who like attention as well but families with both girls and boys often notice that boys are easier to look after.
Parents with two children who admit to having a favourite overwhelmingly (62%) prefer the youngest. Only 30% say they prefer the eldest.
Australian dads are among the oldest in the world, and we're not getting any younger. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' data on registered births in 2020, the median age of fathers is 33.6 years, rising from 28.5 years in 1975, when data was first collated.
Even with all the understandable talk of “windows of opportunity” and “biological clocks,” there are ways for women over 35 to make motherhood a reality. Infertility treatments can be difficult and expensive, but fertility specialists can talk with you about options. Age is less of a limitation than it used to be.
In particular, a sibling age difference of 2 years or more was associated with a higher chance of completing high school and attending college. Another study found that children who are more than 3.5 years apart tend to get higher grades than children born less than 2 years apart.
Younger adults, and those with less education, are more inclined toward boys, but the main distinction is between men and women. Women are split — 31 percent want a girl, 30 percent a boy — but 43 percent of men prefer a son, to 24 percent who prefer a daughter.
Healthcare accounts for 9% of child-rearing expenses, including the out-of-pocket costs of premiums and deductibles paid throughout the years of raising a child. Parents can expect to pay about $1,546 each year on healthcare, with teenagers in general being the most expensive age.
While having children often leads to less pay for mothers, fatherhood leads to an increase: Men with children typically earn more than both women—with or without kids—and men without children.
"Before the birth, a father would assume he'd connect with his son psychologically more so than with his daughter, and that they'd have more shared interests such as playing football. There is also research showing marriages with sons are less likely to break down than marriages with only daughters."
While they praise particular characteristics in their sons – seeing them as being "funny", "cheeky" and "playful" – mothers admit that they are likely to denigrate their daughters for showing similar attributes, referring to them instead as "stroppy", or "argumentative".
Statistically speaking, daughters win the day, but sons win dad by a nose. These findings are somewhat surprising, given the prevailing theory that preference for sons or daughters is based less on the sex of the parents than on their socioeconomic status.